Saturday, November 19, 2005

Saw Capote at the Clay. Discomfiting account of Truman Capote writing In Cold Blood. How much of this is accurate? Philip Seymour Hoffman impersonates Capote convincingly & without caricature. Harper Lee is depicted exactly as I would imagine her: grounded, unassuming, circumspect.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Recital of songs by Mahler, Berg & Wagner at Herbst. Goerne is young & severe-looking. Entertaining & theatrical, despite the serious program. More into sound & musicality than into words. Uses a lot of body English to shape the sound. Was he using a cheat-sheet for the words of the Wesendonck-Lieder? Accompanied by Wolfram Rieger, who has fast fingers & great dynamic control.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Stuck around Berkeley to hear Borodin Quartet at First Congregational Church. Substantial all-Russian program. Quartet founded in 1945 & still has its original cellist, now 80! Muddy church accoustic. High technical level of playing. Especially strong 1st violinist. Decisive attacks & phrasing. No need to make concessions for the age of the cellist. In fact his playing is astonishingly efficient.

Propeller at Zellerbach Playhouse. Actor driven: 12 actors, all men, play all the roles, do the set changes & provide the music. The female characters in the court are played without travesty or camp. The overbearing Paulina works especially well cast as a male. After the grim first half, pastoral scenes kick in a whole different level of energy. A flamboyant, Elton John-inspired Autolycus and country wenches who come across as even more bawdy being played by men who are not very convincingly feminine. Cutest performance: William Buckhurst, who goes from being the put-upon Antigonus in the first half to the hunky Prince Florizel in the second half.

Very physical production. We're shown the disgusting spectacle of a husband kicking his pregnant wife. The boy Mamillius is retained throughout. Is he imagining the story? Staging of the final moments denies the audience a reconciliation scene. It's powerful & devastating. A woman in the audience lost it & could be heard crying as the play ended.